


Pidge's Caretaker

by SymphonicFantasia



Series: Just a Shidgen [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Amputation, Brother-Sister Relationships, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Shidge Week 2016, Shidge Week 2016: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 16:02:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10222082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymphonicFantasia/pseuds/SymphonicFantasia
Summary: It’s such an unfortunate time for memories to come back to him. Times of when Pidge was just a little kid he called “Katie.” Science fairs that he helped her out and encouraged her to continue when she failed. Summers of taking care of and kissing scrapped knees from playing too roughly. Memories that are pulling themselves out from the depths of his mind.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm... a terrible person. My little sister and brother who watch the show think I'm evil and question my motives... So am I... I'm sorry.

It was sheer bad luck that they ended up being chased by a swarm. It was worse bad luck for Shiro to help Pidge run, stopping for only a moment to shoot a zombie that had dared to come any closer. Their team’s calculations said that this area should have been safe. The creatures were nowhere near their destination, yet here they were, coming towards them with a hungry look in their eye.

Pidge let out a pained yelp as she stumbled over a tire. Shiro’s grip on her arm tightened and he pulled her along. They cruised along the mazes of the abandoned city, hoping to lose most of the swarm to some other lucky soul still wandering around. It was cruel, but it was a matter of life or death and Shiro needed Pidge to _live_.

When things died down, or at least it appeared that way to Shiro, he pulled her into a house, hunkering down behind some pieces of furniture. They were close to the door, someone’s poor attempt at barricading the dead that walked the Earth. A large blood splatter covered the floor, dried up over time. Looks like they never got the chance to protect themselves.

Shiro leaned Pidge against a bookcase and nudge at her hand. She grimaced at him but yielded at his commanding look. Shaking, she pulled her hand away, revealing a vicious bite mark that oozed blood. He was careful with the tender flesh, thumbs barely touching the wound.

An accident that shouldn’t have happened.

“We have medicine back at the base,” he muttered, peering closer at it.

“They’re still in the testing phase… They might not work…” Pidge muttered.

This was true. Pidge, Allura, Coran, and Hunk all worked hard to come up with a cure. Tirelessly, they’d worked through the night in hopes that they could _do_ something for the world. They had no results so far. If they tried a little harder, got better equipment and ingredients, they could do it.

“Worse comes to worse,” Shiro swallowed around the lump in his throat, “we’ll cut it off.”

Pidge laughed. “You and I both know that it doesn’t always work that way.”

Shiro grabbed her by her shoulders and shook. Through gritted teeth, he spoke, “It worked for me. It’ll work for you, too.” The low light glinted off his metal arm and memories come back to him. It was painful getting bit and even more so when they cut off his arm. But Pidge and Hunk hooking everything up hurt the worse. They could make one for Pidge. He knew they could.

Pidge breathed hard through her nose and looked around the room. Her eyes fell on something in the corner. “Then do it now.” At Shiro’s look, she motioned to the corner.

Shiro looked and his blood grew cold. A rusty saw wasn’t the right way to do this. It was unsanitary and they were sitting in unsanitary conditions. Anyone could happen to Pidge’s stump between now and getting back to base. “Pidge, not now—“

“Do it before it spreads!” Pidge pleas, voice cracking.

They way Pidge speaks makes his stomach drop. Since the outbreak, he’s watched over her. Sam, Colleen, and Matt succumbed to the disease and Shiro promised on their dying breaths that he would look after her. They’ve been friends for years. He’s considered them family to him. Hearing Pidge speak like this doesn’t sit right with him.

What choice does he have, though?

He knows that he should secure a ride out of here. He knows he should try to find something clean to wrap the wound in first. Something bigger than a couple of bandages that is most likely the last of their supplies. More things that he should take into consideration that he doesn’t. Shiro places the supplies at the ready, resting on top of his bag before he starts for the blade.

His thumb runs over it. It’ll do the job and he wishes that it wouldn’t. Of course, even if it was dull, Pidge would still want him to go follow through. When he turns back, Pidge is laying down, her bandanna shoved into her mouth. At least she were prepared. Shiro, on the other hand, felt sick.

It shouldn’t be him.

Shiro kneels beside her and brushes the hair out of her eyes, skewing her glasses momentarily. “I’ll make it as quick as I can.”

Pidge nods her head, putting on a brave face, but Shiro can see it. The fear in her eyes, and he doesn’t blame them. Even he was afraid when his arm was removed. But it saved him and it would save Pidge, too. It had to.

Grabbing her shoulder, he placed the blade against above the bite on her left arm. He waited until Pidge nodded her head before he started cutting. Even muffled, it was a scream that would haunt Shiro. He made quick work of cutting through flesh, muscle, and bone until it was off. Shiro dropped the blade and wrapped what remained of Pidge’s arm in bandages, hoping that it’ll keep and she wouldn’t bleed out. Not until they were back at base.

Shiro’s heart broke when he looked at Pidge, breath labored and looking pale. Sweat beaded on her forehead and he brushed it away. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to secure a ride out of here, okay?”

Pidge nodded her head, eyes closing. He’ll let her rest for now. Shiro ran out the back door and looked for a car that was still working. Finding one took longer than he liked, but it worked and that was good enough. Pidge was still sleeping when he got back. He was careful as he lifted ther up, making his way back to the car.

Along the way, he muttered.

He muttered to her that she was going to be okay.

* * *

“You’re lucky you made it back in time.”

Shiro ran his fingers through his hair and looked up at Allura. She stood before him, hands on her hips. “How is she?”

“Stable. Although I don’t know what compelled you to go ahead and cut off her arm in such a dirty environment,” Allura commented. Shiro had to agree with her. Pidge never gave him much of a choice. “You won’t be able to see her until the morning.”

That long? He breathed heavily through his nose, hanging his head. “Okay…”

Allura sighed and sat next to him, stretching her legs out before her. “You’re too soft on Pidge. I know you made a promise to her family, but you can’t give in to every little demand she makes.”

He smiled. “That’s not happening any time soon, Allura.”

“I know it isn’t, but you should try. Especially during these dangerous times.” She stood up and stretched. “Are you going to bed soon?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Sleep well and _don’t_ go into the infirmary until the morning.”

“I won’t.” But he does. Shiro waits until Allura is long gone around the corner before he stands up and opens the infirmary doors. He doesn’t plan on staying long. Pidge looks so peaceful on the bed, a sedative allowing her to sleep. He pushes her hair back and smiles. At least she’s okay.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Shiro whispers, his thumb rubbing her forehead. Stepping back, he leaves, closing the door with a quiet click. Exhaustion washes over him like a blanket, one that he wants to curl up under. With a heavy heart, he leaves the medical wing and heads for the barracks.

* * *

_“…ro…”_

_“…h…ro…”_

_"Shiro! Wake up!”_

Shiro jolts awake, Lance hovering over him. He looks panicked. The alarms are blaring all throughout his room. That could only mean one thing: a contaminated specimen was walking around. Hoping out of bed, he slipped his boots on, and grabbed his weapons. All the guns were fully loaded and he was ready to fight.

The whole time, Lance was talking but he didn’t hear him. Instead, he moved past him and headed for the door. Lance still followed, words still falling out of his mouth. Shiro never heard him as he headed for the medical wing. Why the medical wing was so close to their experiment wing, he didn’t know. Something about samples being easy to access due to the closeness.

It’s only when he gets there that Lance’s words finally hit him all at once.

" _It’s Pidge! Pidge just turned and she’s walking around the medical bay!”_

Because Shiro can see it. See as the one he looked after for _years_ hovers over someone, sharp teeth gnawing at a body of one of their workers. He drops one of his guns, too shocked to realize that he’s done it. Pidge looks up at him, her eyes a dark red. She stand up slowly and Shiro feels Lance pull him back.

It’s such an unfortunate time for memories to come back to him. Times of when Pidge was just a little kid he called “Katie.” Science fairs that he helped her out and encouraged her to continue when she failed. Summers of taking care of and kissing scrapped knees from playing too roughly. Memories that are pulling themselves out from the depths of his mind.

When Pidge starts running towards them, Lance pulls at him to run and he does. They run to the end of the hallway and Shiro punches in his code. The metal wall used to contain contaminated comes down slowly from the ceiling and Lance begs for it to go faster. Shiro couldn’t even if he could. Because a part of him still hopes that this is some vicious prank being pulled on him.

The door closes and Pidge slams against it. Through the gated window, Shiro can see Pidge snarling and reaching out to them, trying to grab either one. Shiro sees that she’s long gone. Whatever part of her that remained intact after the contamination spread is long gone.

He throws up all over the floor

 

An hour passes. They’ve been in the meeting room for hours, discussing their difficult situation. It’s never happened before. Their contaminated bodies were never someone they knew personally. It was never someone Shiro cared about so deeply.

He sat at the video feed, watching as Pidge wandered the halls. It was still hard to believe that it happened to her.

“All our efforts… wasted…” Coran muttered.

“We have all of the research Pidge did,” Hunk pointed out. “If I work on it, I should be able to make it work for me. I can continue it.”

“That’s not our main concern at this point,” Allura stated with a firm slap of her hand on the table. She looked the room over and Shiro could feel her eyes boring in the back of his head. “Someone will need to go and take care of her.”

He knows what she’s thinking without being told. Everyone does. It’s too much to say vocally and the air feels stiff with the unmentionable.

“I’ll do it,” Keith speaks out. “Shiro shoudn’t—He—“

“I’ll do it.” Shiro doesn’t look back at them. His eyes remain on the cameras, taking in where Pidge is walking around. It gives him a few options to get rid of her. It’s unbearable to think, but it should be him. He took care of the Holt’s, after all.

Shiro stands up and grabs only his gun and a knife. No one says anything as he walks out of their command room, but he can hear someone following him. Keith falls in step beside him, sparing him a few pitying glances. He doesn’t want to hear it. He doesn’t want to know what he wants to say.

They walk through the building until they’re on the far side of the medical wing. It’ll give Shiro enough time to open the wall, get inside, and close it behind him. He makes a check that everything is in order and he has extra ammo. He doesn’t plan on wasting time on killing Pidge, but anything could happen.

“Shiro, don’t do this,” Keith pleads as he punches his code in. The wall rises slowly, making a sound that has them both wincing. He only lets it open a bit before punching the code in again. “Let me take care of Pidge. It shouldn’t be you.”

Shiro closes his eyes and breaths heavily through his nose. Instead of answering, he ducks down and slides beneath the opening. “I won’t be long. Don’t watch the cameras and don’t let them watch it. Understand?”

He waits until Keith nods his head. With that, he punches in his code to lower the wall, turns and starts running. He runs down the twists and turns until he comes to the hallway she’s waiting for him in. Blood splatters on the wall, handprints here and there. Shiro steps over a body, eyes trained on Pidge at the end. Pidge stares at him, eyes looking wild.

It was his choice to be here, but it doesn’t hurt any less. Because memories are still coming back to him and they won’t stop. Shiro takes aim, the scope helping him along the way. Pidge slowly trudges towards him, a limp in her step. No amount of deep breathing aids him in being calm. All he can do is let out a sob as he pulls the trigger, his bullet flying and making a direct hit with their head.

Shiro lowers his gun, expecting the worse to be over. Pidge will fall over, officially dead, and he could work on building a grave for her.

But the worse isn’t over yet.

Something black and tentacle like sprouts from her head, swinging around the room. Pidge is still coming towards him, running at him now.

“Shit… Shit!” Shiro shouts, raising his gun up to fire.

Panic is not something that comes to him easily, but when it does, he loses his focus. His shots miss, never making direct contact with her head. Pidge tackles him to the ground, his gun flying out of his hand as he uses both to keep her from attacking him. The appendage whips at him and he twists his head left and right. It nicks him every now and then, and he can feel the strange and disgusting smelling liquid hit his face. It takes a lot of his willpower to not gag.

Shiro won’t last if he doesn’t do something. He looks over to where his gun is and tries to reach it, the weapon just barely out of his grasp. He can’t get any closer to it. Instincts take over as he grabs his knife from his holster and punches Pidge a few times. The hits stun her long enough for him to turn them around and pin her down.

With the knife, and more sobs that break him, he stabs at the appendage. Over and over again until it and her entire body stills. He stares down at her, feeling bile at the back of his throat. His hands shake and he’s openly sobbing now as he grabs her shoulders, leaning over her and wishing that this was all a nightmare. That she was in her lab, laughing over what a great prank it was, knowing all too well that he’d scold her for doing it.

An apocalypse isn’t the time to play a prank, but she would just to lighten the mood. She’d say a joke about being disarmed and he’d comment that Lance had rubbed off on her too much.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell that I like Resident Evil? Ha ha ha... I'm sorry again?


End file.
